Chris hadn't known what he had expected Ishtar to react like when he burst through the door of her office brimming with piss and vinegar. Perhaps he wanted her to panic at his anger and reveal everything.

But after aggressively pushing open the open and sauntering into the room, he felt his inner fire instantly go out. In a total reversal of his expectations, Ishtar seemed more annoyed with his overconfident entrance and it just felt awkward when their golden eyes met.

"Hello Christian," she said calmly from behind her desk. " I didn't happen to send for you, Argentum Ddraig. So know that I am expecting a sufficient excuse as to why you are here?"

As she spoke, Ishtar didn't even raise her voice or show any kind of irritation. She was however cold and impersonal. It blew away the burning anger within Chris and simply left both Ddraig siblings in an awkward silence.

"We... well... I... I..." Chris racked his brain for anything but in truth he could not even remember what he had wanted here and heavens be good this was just embarrassing.

Ishtar looked at him with cold gold eyes that seemed to be studying his every body movement with a hawk like observation which just made him even more uncomfortable.

"Well, Christian. I am waiting."

"I... I.... I don't know." he whispered in response as everything about how he had behaved came back crashing upon him and he could only think. "I am a damn idiot."

Ishtar sighed and shook her head in disappointment. She then pointed at the chair directly facing the table and her whilst saying. "Please take a seat."

Chris pulled the chair and he sat down. "I am sorry. I have no idea what came over me."

"I understand...." Ishtar then paused as if she was considering her next words carefully. "Hamanymu was just here to give me a report on yesterdays battle."

"You know that you could have just asked me. I am the one who took out Agathocles."

"Yes you did." Ishtar paused again. "... Chris, I want you to answer me honestly, is everything okay?"

That question was like a backhand to his face and Chris could believe what he was hearing. After everything that had happened, Ishtar was talking to him like he was some kind of fragile child.

"Of course I am okay. I fought a dark energy user last night and I dominated him with ease." He spoke with all the confidence in the world, but something ate at the back of his mind, something that told him that he was lying.

Ishtar seemed to think so too because she didn't appear to believe him in the slightest. She kept constant eye contact with him and Chris found his doubt in his own words balloon further.

" I suppose so. But Chris, remember that you can reach out to me if anything is troubling you."

"I...." Chris wanted to dispute what she had just said, but he could deny that something was wrong with him. He considered saying some joke and walking off, but this was an opportunity and Chris would grab it by the horns. "After we returned from the Nexus, I haven't felt the same. Its like their is something inside me, something that I can never get rid of."

As he spoke,he felt his chest sting from the phantom pain which eminated from his scar. He carresed his chest and he could feel the remains of the healed wound which Nimue had left upon him.

"What Is It like?" Ishtar asked as her facial features softened.

"I don't know, it's like a fire burning in me, a anger that just wants to break out at any time. I am trying to ignore it, but sometimes I have nightmares and I can't sleep and I just feel so irritable." it felt so good for him to finally dump this all out. "Leza, Sophia and all the Ancient Ones be good, I did that when I came here. I was dick to Hamanymu and the truth of the matter is that I don't know why I have changed."

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"I won't pretend to be a psychologist, but I am sure that you have post tramatic stress." Chris had to fight his instincts from bursting into a rough fit of laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of the words that had just escaped Ishtar's mouth.

"You can't be serious. I am a survivor who has faced down everything life has thrown my way, I am not throwing a simple fit because I have a bobo." he snickered back at her and Ishtar did not look amused in the slightest.

"Christian, there is nothing weak about admitting that you are suffering from a mental health problem. Heavens know that everyone of us has some kind of trauma, but we just want to bury it and leave it to fester because we have won." a sad smile graced Ishtar's lips as she continued speaking. " When our mother's other half turned evil and almost crippled you, we never spoke about, all that mattered was winning, but after we won we just looked to the next goal that will distract us. And something festered inside me for years."

Chris had been planning a retort when she started speaking, but when she brought up that sore fact of his past. He knew all too well how that resentment had clang onto him for over five years and it was only a month ago when he faced it.

"And all it took was me thinking that I had died and dragged my friends with me to the grave." he thought bitterly as he remembered his arrival into the world of the Mizihimo, the Shade.

"It was only after we got back from the Nexus that I finally being seeking out help, because no matter how strong we feel if we allow this to build up within us, it will force us to crack."

"Well, that is fun and all, but the closest therapist is hundreds of kilometres back home." Chris did not want to tell his deepest emotions to some stranger.

A knowing smile arched across Ishtar's lips and Chris felt a sense of dread grow in his belly. "The ships medical staff contains ten psychological experts. I can book you an appointment and if you don't like it, you can pull out at any time."

"Since when did ships start having shrinks?"

"It was one of father's policies last year. The whole military would rather die than share our feelings, so we have had to make it mandatory for them to be on ships."

"Thanks father." he sarcastically thought with a scowl.

He didn't want to tell Ishtar that he planned to only go once and never allow the brain wizard near him again. Of course he knew that she would not ask him as his sister and order him as his commanding officer.

That was when the door slightly shook from the knocking at the otherside. Chris rose from his seat and went to check who stood at the door. As soon as he opened the door, he was met face to face with High Council Hanno Magnus.

The large elf towered over him and he was trailed by over twenty attendants behind him and Chris was sure that eighty of them were bodyguards. Though it was to be expected after the events of yesterday.

"Prince Christian, a wonderful morning for our twice saviour." the High Council declared in his usual rapturous tone as he grabbed Chris and drew him into a vice of a hug.

After Chris was finally freed from having his entire torso crushed, he staggered back gasping for pain. The High Council and four of his twenty attendants entered the room.

"Crown princess Ishtar, a good morning to you I hope?" he asked Ishtar as one of the attendees closed the door behind them, faster than Chris could rush through and escape the High Council.

He had spent two days in Hephatan and while he was happy that the High Council himself was on their side, he still knew that the High Council was a politician and they had become his bane within Avalons game of backstabbing untrustworthy scum.

"Of course High Council. Though if may ask, twice saved?"

"Of course your brother is twice saved. The first time he saved us, he slew the great Nimue and the second time was his victory against Agathocles last night. " the High Council turned to face Chris whilst saying. " The entire country is speaking about you. I think that you might be much more famous than you were before."

"Please don't allow him to grow a bigger head than he already has." Ishtar teased with a smile.

"Too late," Chris might have been joking, but the feeling that people knew about his achievements and they were probably praising him made him warm in the chest.

One of the High Council's attendees carefully placed the empty chair opposite of Ishtar in a more careful position for the High Council. Looking at this opulence made Chris want to gag in disgust.

"The man has arms and legs for heavens sake." he thought wondering how much longer he would have to stay in this place before he suffered a cringe or rage induced aneurysm.

"But I did not come here for pleasantries." the High Council lost his characteristics grin and it was like Chris looking at a completely different man. "I just came back from a long meeting with our council."

Chris tensed up in anticipation for what the High Council had to say. He suspected that his actions within the battle last night had at least won over the Hephatantian peoples, but there was no telling how many traitors were hiding in the ranks of their government like Agathocles had been.

"We are considering going after the remains of the Helmp party."

"The rest of them?, I thought that we captured the rats last night?" Chris had been sure that not every Helmp traitor was dead and their survivors had been taken as prisoners for interrogations.

"Not all of them, some escaped from Hephatan as a whole throughout the night and those who we captured have revealed that they have a secret base of operations on the island down south. We are considering sending the full might of the Hephatantian armed forces to root them out."

"Forgive me for questioning your next course of actions, but I would think that a few malcontents aren't worth the full attention of your army." Ishtar asked him and a sad smile graced the High Council's face.

He forced out a deep breath before responding. "But they are more than a few. Our investigations have discovered that for the last year they have implemented a secret program to traffic people to their base, our current estimations put their potential numbers at ten thousand and that is without mentioning the possibilities that they have Night Terrors."

Chris would be lying if he said that Night Terrors held the same level of fright that they did to his ten year old self once. Of course he would also be lying if he said that he did not fear them in the slightest, for he still remembered his run in with a Dullahan elder Night Terror which almost killed him. The potential of rematching that beast was both enticing and a dread upon his senses.

"That is a well and good, but why are you telling me this directly." Ishtar knew the answer to her own question, but if there was one thing that Chris had learned from watching politics, it was that politicians always played coy and hated direct speech.

"Because we would love for you to join us in this expedition. Your people's reputation, plus both you and your brother's renoun would not only boost the morale of our forces, but you could also compell the Helmp to surrender without a single life lost."

The High Council kept a genuinely pleasant and warm tone as they spoke, but Chris knew that there was more to this request. Them joining this expedition would also boost the High Council's image amongst his people as it showed just how much in his corner Avalon was.

Ishtar must have come to this conclusion as well from how she sat with tightly pucked lips and a contemplative expression plastered upon her face. She opened her mouth and uttered three words that would snow ball into consequences one could not have foreseen.

"We Are In."